Edmund Standing, who recently published a report into the BNP’s activities on the internet, now shares some more of his thoughts on the BNP, focusing on their creation of a false image for themselves, and how the media feeds their fantasies:

“The truth is that the BNP hates Muslims because they are predominantly brown skinned. In ‘white nationalist’ ideology, everything ultimately boils down to an obsession with race.

When it comes to Islam, the BNP hasn’t exactly had to work hard to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia about ‘Islamification’. Looking at the scare stories on its website’s news section, a large number of them are drawn straight from mainstream media sources…

So, when the BNP claimed in its European election material that it would ‘ensure that British troops are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslims’, it was in particular cynically appealing to the concerns of those who get the majority of their understanding of the world from reading simplistic and hyped up tabloid stories.”

25 Comments below |

I am afraid that Mr Standing,in his usual patronising and arrogant manner, has no understanding of how the majority of white UK citizens view the armed forces or how they form their opinions.

Because the left is tiny and cannot think for itself it does not grasp the relationship between the public and the armed forces. Most people have a very high regard for the armed forces and the reaction to the demo in Luton against The Anglians was typical of most people in this country.

This article shows clearly that he is totally as out of touch with reality generally as he is to the reasons why people vote BNP specifically.

Where – in either of the linked articles – does Mr Standing say anything of the sort? You are presumeably quoting this part:

So, when the BNP claimed in its European election material that it would â€˜ensure that British troops are not abused on the streets of our cities by Muslimsâ€™, it was in particular cynically appealing to the concerns of those who get the majority of their understanding of the world from reading simplistic and hyped up tabloid stories.

No?

For he goes on to say:

….It’s not just a case of media scare stories, however. Another important factor that is undoubtedly greatly assisting the BNP in its promotion of anti-Muslim sentiment is the problem of largely self-appointed Muslim ‘community leaders’ and organisations and their very vocal and, to the majority of Britons, unreasonable lists of demands of how British society should change to accommodate what is presented as Islam and the ‘rights’ of Muslims.

The latter quote would seem to me to have been this blogs raison d’Ãªtre since day one. It is entirely reasonable to have a high regard for our armed forces, it is entirely unreasonable to see three men and a dug as a mass counter-movement. Which is the narrative you seem to me to be peddling here…

You have often come on here and told us about your anti-fascist credentials, and contrary to what you might think, I admire your dedication to that cause.

But you do recognise, don’t you, that if the media is biased in favour of a fascist agenda, it makes it all the more likely that minor incidents will be awarded prominence far beyond what is reasonable. This does not even take into account front page headlines that are downright lies, Sunny can give you chapter and verse on that, or 5cc.

I am not in favour of press censorship, but neither am I in favour of the general public being mislead. Which is what happens all the time.

The ‘close-up’ shot of a demonstrator smashing in a window at the G8 told one narrative, the ‘long’ shot, where said protestors – two or three I think – were surrounded by hundreds of photographers, told a slightly different story. Were they egged on? I don’t know, but they’d have looked a bit foolish if they hadn’t smashed the window with the worlds media watching.

The ongoing debate about who did what at the G8 and the realisation that kettling is maybe a bad idea has taken, what, about three months, to surface as something that might merit a policy change. Lots of folk will have been put off demonstrating in that interim period, and we are still no nearer a sensible resolution of the role of the police viz-a-viz protest.

The media is not biased in favour of a fascist agenda, Douglas; both- for different reasons- favour simple and simplistic depictions of the world, which means that their immediate interests often coincide.
The B.N.P.’s emphasis on muslims as hate-figures has come about because it thinks it enables them to widen their appeal and appear like a conventional party while still retaining the “white nationalism” that is at the core of their ideology: everything has to change so that it can stay the same.

I didn’t say the press was fascist, I said biased. Meaning that it seems to pick up on right wing stringers somewhat uncritically.

It is kind of hard to remain neutral on the state of our press when some stories, that feed into a media generated furore are given prominence – such as the lyrical terrorist, when others barely make a ripple.

Can you tell me the name of the man who threatened to blow up the Glasgow Mosque and behead a Muslim a week? Without googling, I’ll be honest, I can’t. That is how agendas are set.

I know that the media has its’ own agenda, which is to sell air time and newsprint. But there have been too many cases of the press publishing complete bunkum to suggest that they do not see this as cheap rabble rousing. Meaning cheap as in, not very costly.

And fact checking be damned! Far less, bloody balance.

I completely agree wth your paragraph about the BNP. Mr Standing has made the point that the public and private faces of that particular groupiscule are completely different. I think he has done us all a service by doing the necessary research.

Please remember that I am a white working class bricklayer. Can I have all that in English? “The media is biased in favour of a fascist agenda”. As Ruby Wax would say, Phlueees! Mind you, she is Jewish so you never know!

Douglas Clark (10) – ‘It is kind of hard to remain neutral on the state of our press when some stories, that feed into a media generated furore are given prominence â€“ such as the lyrical terrorist, when others barely make a ripple.’

The Lyrical Terrorist stroy was shocking and deserved every bit of coverage it got. Leaving that aside though, I think you are correct here.

We have a massive ofversupply of ‘media’ (not just the press) and hand in hand with this has come a staggering dumbing down.

In our media there must always be someone to blame and always someone to kick at. Whatever the muslim community’s faults, and they are real, the lack of any sort of balance in the media has become a problem.

I have never met anyone who thought that a 24 hour news cycle was a good idea. We need far less, far better media.

If the papers only ever print bad news about the Irish, say, and never print any bad news about any other group, then that would them being biased, wouldn’t it? If they exaggerate the bad news about the Irish, beyond what the story justifies, then that would them being sensationalist. And if they just make up the stories about the Irish out of thin air then that is them being the guttersnipes they so often are…

But the problem with that is that it becomes, for want of an alternative, ‘the truth’. What we are all led to believe. Because no-one hears about the bad things the English, the Welsh or the Scots might be doing in the meantime.

Even though it is a load of propoganda.

But you knew that all along, didn’t you?

You can’t have been an anti fascist and have been completely unaware of what the National Socialists did to prepare the German People for their ‘Final Solution’. It’s demonisation of ‘the other’, and it stinks.

My favourite example of oversupply was when we had the Avian Flu panic. BBC News 24, and for all I know the rest of the rolling news media, showed a very long distance shot of a dead duck on some island in Loch Leven, for around 30 minutes of every hour for damn near a full day, live transmission of a dead duck. Just that. Desperate stuff.

On the lyrical terrorist, I was trying to draw a parallel between the two cases without arguing which was worse. Obviously, that didn’t work as a ploy!

Douglas Clark,
You are one thick cunt as we say in WWC circles. Totally brainless and, possibly, a former lecturer at a polytechnic.

Imran Khan,

You really must keep up those English classes at a former polytechnic. I said that I have excellent sources within Tower Hamlets Council. Look at the article yesterday by Gilligan in the Standard about the corruption there. You must all actually read what I write.

“When it comes to Islam, the BNP hasnâ€™t exactly had to work hard to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia about â€˜Islamificationâ€™. Looking at the scare stories on its websiteâ€™s news section, a large number of them are drawn straight from mainstream media sourcesâ€¦”

One wonders whether “mainstream media sources” includes Harry’s Place, where young Edward seems to spend an awful lot of his time – and where anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia is not simply rampant, but almost obligatory.

When it comes to Islam, the BNP hasn’t exactly had to work hard to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry and paranoia about ‘Islamification’. Looking at the scare stories on its website’s news section, a large number of them are drawn straight from mainstream media sources, and the party is being greatly assisted by the grossly disproportionate coverage given in newspapers to the outrageous statements and provocations of Anjem Choudary and his motley crew of social misfits who go under a variety of names but are essentially Al-Muhajiroun. In hysterical report after report (some of which I have documented here and here), a tiny minority of bin Ladenist fanatics and fantasists have been presented as a serious threat to our society.

That is clearly a scathing indictment of the mainstream media’s penchant for ‘scary’ Muslim stories and you’re complaining?

You’ve ‘edited’ what Mr Standing is actually saying, and in doing so have twisted his words to say things he hasn’t said.

And yet you’d be the first to invoke “context” were HP to quote, and accurately so, a certain Mr Hasan.